Each of President Donald Trump’s nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors said they did not support the privatization of the utility or selling its assets, as feared by some environmentalists.

Speaking at their confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Oct. 22, Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood and Randy Jones each simply said “no” when asked by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) whether they supported TVA’s privatization. Florida Public Service Commissioner Arthur Graham said, “I think there’s absolutely no reason to do anything different here.”

When asked by Markey to agree not to “sell off any portion of TVA’s service region” or infrastructure assets, the nominees mostly answered to the senator’s liking.

“I do not see any reason to sell any of TVA’s assets off,” Jones said, which Graham echoed after Markey said: “that was the correct answer.”

Graves said, “I don’t think that’s the board’s decision,” to which Hagood agreed.

The nonprofit group Appalachian Voices had urged senators to question the nominees on privatization based on comments Trump made during his first administration. The TVA board has lacked a quorum for months after the president fired three of its members. (See Nonprofits Warn of Potential TVA Privatization Ahead of Board Hearings.)

The committee will vote on advancing the nominees to the Senate floor Oct. 29.

All four spoke about TVA’s importance in keeping electricity affordable for its customers. Graves, a member of the Memphis Light, Gas & Water board, and Hagood, a Knoxville-based attorney, each emphasized preserving it as a local institution.

When questioned about meeting load growth, each emphasized the importance of nuclear power, with Hagood calling it TVA’s “best hope.”

“We need a sense of urgency” on nuclear, agreed Jones, an insurance executive who also serves on the Guntersville Electric Board in Alabama.

Graham said small modular reactors are “key” to meeting increased demand. But first he wanted “to make sure the numbers people are talking about [in terms of gigawatts] are legitimate. I mean, is this a pipe dream, or is this actually going to come true? I believe it is,” but the board needs to verify the anticipated demand through its integrated resource plan, he said. “I saw what happened in Georgia with Vogtle … and no one wants to be the next one going down that path.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) suggested power purchase agreements for large loads to protect customers from rate hikes created by the increased demand. Graves said he “100% agreed” with Kelly “that it cannot be on the backs of ratepayers.”

Each also agreed they would consider creating a separate rate class for large load facilities like data centers.

“This is all we’re about now, is data centers,” Jones said in agreement. “But what’s it going to cost to supply the power for them? And what if they leave five years from now and we’re left holding the bag?”